As an open source developer who usually makes his own tools and programs, why did I decide to use WordPress of all possible website creators?
What I tried
Google sites
I tried using Google sites but the problem is that custom code is not allowed at all causing issues for the future. So this option got out of the maybe list rather quickly.
Squarespace
Believe it or not but I had actually considered using Squarespace at some point. What turned me off was the user interface which took too much time to get used to and their pricing. The UI problem is something I can get used to with time … but the pricing option would not be easy for my wallet to get used to. Especially since I don’t earn anything from hosting this blog.
Hugo
I have used Hugo before and liked it. However I need something easy to maintain my websites with. Dealing with code related stuff and remembering the way Hugo works was kind of a pain. I really do prefer UI to deal with managing a website. In the past few day’s I tried dealing with Hugo but their theme selection site isn’t great and annoying to navigate in. Finding a theme which works properly, which you like, and has decent support/guidelines/manuals is difficult.
Custom site builder
For the past week I’ve given it a chance to create my own site builder. But I keep getting annoyed by the UI related stuff. I really do prefer an UI to make/maintain/manage my website. To build an entire site builder with UI is an even bigger pain and I already have a video editor I am working on. ^^”
So yeah, time constraints else I would really enjoy working on this kind of a program. In the future I’m planning of working on this idea/project again, but for the time being I’ll use something which is already developed.
Why WordPress
I already have a server for my wife’s website. The resources available are big enough that I am hosting her site, this site and voylin’s life. The hosting server which I have allows for static site hosting, custom email addresses, and it’s just been a joy to work with them as there haven’t been any problems and their support so far has never been difficult/annoying to deal with.
UI
Creating a site with WordPress is rather easy, especially for someone like me who’s bad at UI and UX this is very helpful. Having this easy way of creating pages and posts is very helpful. The theming situation is kind of annoying on WordPress but I know enough css and html to change the things I would want to change. But I am not going to invest too much time in beautifying this site as I do plan on moving away from WordPress in some years.
Ease of use
If you stick with basic things and disable comments, running a WordPress site is not that difficult. No need for figuring out how to code certain things, debugging site generation tools, … Everything just works. I’m using the WordPress provided themes so I don’t have to deal with the whole theme situation.
Cost
Because I use this server for 3 sites the cost can stay quite low. So far non of these sites earn anything which is kind of a pain as it is basically a loss. But my wife wanted a blog so yeah.
The future
As mentioned before I am working on an own site builder, but I am not actively working on it and it may take months before it gets finished or is usable enough. Hugo would probably be the best choice for me, but I also mentioned my problems with Hugo.
If I were to move away from WordPress I’d probably wait until my own site-builder is on point … meaning that I’ll probably use WordPress for some years hahaha.
